


Venus

by 0bviousLeigh



Series: Children of War [16]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-23
Updated: 2016-09-23
Packaged: 2018-08-16 21:50:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8118763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/0bviousLeigh/pseuds/0bviousLeigh
Summary: Serena's scars are always on her mind, until she meets someone who helps her find a way to feel beautiful again. (Warnings for references to past self-harm)





	

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still up to my neck in kittens

Serena’s date with Yuzu isn’t until much later in the day, but she starts getting ready in the afternoon. They’re going for their bi-weekly Friday movie-and ice cream date with Yuri and Yuya. Serena dresses in jean shorts and her favorite shirt, black with sparkly purple lettering that says ‘Too Gay to Function,’ (since people always think she’s dating Yuri), and then she turns her attention to her hair and makeup. She puts her hair in pigtails and decides that it makes her look too young. She puts it in a bun, but decides it’s unflattering. Her usual ponytail is too boring, and if she leaves it long it might get in her ice cream later. Finally she decides to braid it and put a floral clip in her hair.

Now for the makeup. The hardest part is covering her scars, and it’s why she takes forever to get ready. She hasn’t scratched herself awake in months, but the scars are still fairly new, pink and purple and shiny, and totally obvious. Serena starts with a green-tinged foundation, and she layers a mixture of fine powders in different shades of white and pink over her ear and neck. Then she blends the powders together across the rest of her face. It took her a while to master this technique, and it takes a long time to get it to look just right, but it’s worth on a day like this, where Serena wants to be happy and doesn’t want any ugly reminders of the war on her skin.

Yuzu gets home from school and says that she’s going to go get ready. Yuzu doesn’t take nearly as long to prepare—she throws on a change of clothes and some eyeshadow, and she looks gorgeous.

They meet Yuya and Yuri at the movie theater, twenty minutes before the movie starts, because by now they know that they’ll spend a good ten minutes arguing over who’s turn it is to buy the tickets, because they all want to pay. Today, Yuzu wins the argument, and everyone swears that they’ll write it down and remember that they have to treat her next time, but they won’t write it down and no one will remember.

In the theater, Serena makes sure that Yuzu sits on her un-scarred side, so when she leans her head on Yuzu’s shoulder, she doesn’t worry about smudging her makeup. The movie is cute, and Yuzu is cuter. She holds the popcorn bucket in her lap and whenever Serena taps her, she hand feeds the popcorn to Serena. She giggles and smiles whenever something nice happens on the screen, and her eyes get big and sad whenever the action takes a downside. Serena swears she goes to movies to watch Yuzu, instead of the films.

When the movie ends, the four of them begin the walk to their favorite ice cream place. In addition to ice cream, it also sells sorbet, which Serena actually likes a lot more than ice cream. Each time they go to the shop, the four of them order their favorite flavors, and then they place a fifth order for a small cup of a surprise flavor. Yuya was the one who started the tradition, and it’s a nice way to try new things without the worry of wasting it if no one likes it. Serena orders pomegranate sorbet, Yuzu orders cookie dough ice cream, Yuri gets green tea ice cream (because he likes to torment himself), and Yuya gets strawberry ice cream. Today, the waitress gives them s’mores ice cream as their surprise flavor.

They sit at a booth by the window and prepare to try the new ice cream.

“Too sweet for me to eat an entire thing,” Serena says, “But it’s good.”

“It’s very rich,” Yuzu says, spoon still pressed to her lips. “I think I got a real chunk of marshmallow.”

Yuri says, “It’s good, but not as good as a real s’more.”

“I’m getting this next time,” Yuya vows.

When they finish their ice cream, they decide to shake things up a bit and go for a walk. There’s a street nearby with a bunch of cute little shops, and they’ve never gone but have always wanted to. They spend an hour walking around, taking in the sights, they eat some more, and as they’re about to leave, Serena notices a tattoo parlor, and a sign in it’s window that reads ‘Scar cover-up.’ She pauses, and with her arm linked with Yuzu’s, Yuzu stops, too.

“Want to go in?” She asks.

Serena shakes her head, but she does take a picture of the shop. She doesn’t tell Yuzu, but her mind is racing with an idea.

 

On Monday, Serena speeds through her online lessons and heads back to the tattoo parlor she found on Friday. Her heart hammers in her chest and her palms are sweaty, but she has to find out if they can help her.

A bell jingles when she opens the shop’s door, and a woman looks up from the front desk.

“Welcome,” she says. “Do you have an appointment?”

Serena shakes her head. “No, I have, um…a question.”

The woman nods, and Serena inches forward. “I was wondering…” she tilts her head to show her scars. “Can these be covered?”

The woman bites her lip. “By a tattoo? Yes, but…well, it would have to be a very large, colorful tattoo, and I’m not sure you would want that on the side of your face.”

“Oh,” Serena says. “Okay, thank you.”

“Have you tried seeing a plastic surgeon?” The woman asks gently.

Serena nods. “I have, but…they’re, um…self-harm. I scratch my ear in my sleep and I’m not sure if I can stop, so there wasn’t a doctor who could assure me that the effects would last. Come to think of it, I guess it’s the same with a tattoo, huh?”

The woman nods. “Yes, but there is something else you could try.” She leans back and yells, “Shreya! Come here!”

There’s a thud, and another woman emerges from a back room. She wears a white tank top and black shorts, and her body is covered in intricate tattoos.

The first woman says, “This girl’s got some scars she wants to cover.”

Shreya grins. “Well, you’re in the right place. May I see?”

Serena tilts her head.

“Ah,” Shreya says. “Well, that’s not the sort of thing you want to get a permanent tattoo over, not at your young age anyway, but there are other options.”

“There are?” Serena asks.

The woman gestures at her own body. “This is mehndi, but you might know it as henna. Have you considered it?”

Serena shakes her head. “I’ve never heard of either of those things…sorry, I’m not from around here.”

“That’s okay, honey,” Shreya says. “Do you want to learn?”

Serena nods, and Shreya smiles. “Well, as my friend over there is so fond of screaming for me, you know I’m Shreya.” She holds out her hand.

Serena shakes her hand. “I’m Serena.”

Shreya leads Serena to a back room and shows her a few drawers full of brushes, tubes, and applicators, and then she takes out a design book.

“Mehndi is a kind of dye made from the henna plant, and it’s used to stain the skin. The dye can last for weeks at a time, depending on how long it’s allowed to sit on the skin, so it’s longer lasting than a peel-and-stick tattoo, and makeup, but it isn’t permanent. The use of the dye on human skin is thought to have originated in ancient Egypt, and it spread to India, Pakistan, and other places in south Asia.” She shows Serena pages of photos of women with mehndi on their hands, feet, and arms. “I’ve been practicing the application of mehndi since I was twelve, and I brought it with me to my other passion—helping people regain control of their bodies. I use henna to cover self-harm scars, burn scars, radiation/chemo scars, and so on.”

Serena looks longingly at the images. “It’s beautiful. Does it really…not last forever?”

Shreya nods. “If you want, I can show you how it works. I can do a small design on your leg, totally free, and you can decide if you like it.”

Serena considers it for only a moment. “Yes, I would love that, if you don’t mind.”

Shreya grins. “I don’t mind at all!” She directs Serena to a chair, puts on a pair of gloves, and takes out her brushes and a jar. She wipes down a patch of skin on Serena’s left ankle and sets to work, painting a crescent design just over Serena’s ankle.

“Were named after Selene, the Greek moon goddess?” Shreya asks.

“I guess,” Serena says. “I’ve always loved the moon.” She realizes that she’s wearing a t-shirt with the phases of the moon on it. “But I suppose you guessed that.”

“There’s a lot I can do with moon designs,” Shreya says. “Now that ink has to set for a while, and then I have to re-moisten it, and then I’ll wrap it and you can go home, and take the wrappings off after about an hour. So in the meantime, since I’ve got no customers, want to see some more designs?”

Serena nods eagerly. “I would love to!” And she spends an hour talking with Shreya about mehndi.

At home, Serena removes the wrappings from her ankle and gently dabs at the area with a washcloth. The design is simple, but beautiful. Shreya free-handed the design, but the curves are steady and the points of the crescent are sharp. She already loves it, but she decides to hide it for a few days, just to see how long it really lasts.

On the evening of the third day, the moon is as beautiful as it was on day one, and Serena eagerly shows it off to her friends when they get home from school.

“This lady, Shreya, she works at a tattoo parlor and she did this for free!” Serena says as everyone stares at her ankle. “She said she could do stuff like this on my scars, isn’t that awesome?!”

“It’s beautiful,” Yuzu says. “Are you going to ask her to do more?”

“I think so,” Serena says. “We have that party, remember, Masumi’s birthday? I think I want to have the scars covered for it.”

“Badass,” Shun says, giving Serena a high five.

So Serena calls the parlor and makes an appointment with Shreya for the following week. Since it’ll be hard to cover the area, Shreya tells Serena to plan on staying at the shop until the dye sets. It’s on a school day, so Serena can’t ask Yuzu to be there the entire time, but she promises to come over once she gets out of class.

 

Shreya shows Serena a page of sketches. “This can, of course, be tweaked to whatever floats your boat, I just sketched out a few things that I thought would work well.”

“I love it all,” Serena says honestly.

“Alright then,” Shreya says, gesturing towards the bench in the middle of the room. “Lay down on your side and get comfortable, this will take some time.”

While Shreya applies the henna, she asks Serena a few basic questions about herself, and before long Serena is telling her honestly about what kind of world she grew up in and what triggered her to claw at her own ear. Shreya listens patiently, asking Serena if she’s okay whenever she falters in her story, and as the dye sets she sits in front of Serena and hands her tissues.

“I’m glad you told me,” Shreya says when Serena finishes her story. “It sounds like you’ve got a wonderful family now. I hope you’re starting to feel better.”

“I am,” Serena says, “And having this—” She gestures to the dye on the side of her head, careful not to touch it, “I’m really excited about it. It’s such a better option than spending hours covering them with makeup or going outside and knowing that people are staring at me.”

“I know the feeling,” Shreya says with a sigh. “My older sister self-harmed, on her arms. She got better and she stopped, but the scars were there and she hated them. My mom covered them with mehndi, and I would watch her do it. Eventually I learned just by watching and my sister let me design a few things for her.”

“So that’s how you got started on this business?” Serena asks.

“Sure is,” Shreya says. “In India mehndi has religious connotations as well as ceremonial, but I don’t use those designs for every day wear, like in your case, or even my own, sometimes.” She sighs. “Once I had a customer, she had scars on her back from a terrible acid burn. I designed a Tree of Life, and it was enormous! It was the most labor intensive work I ever did, it too two people to finish it and we had to let it sit for hours. I felt so bad for this girl, she had to lie still for half a day, but when we were done and she saw it…I’ll never forget the look on her face.”

There’s a knock on the door and it opens. It’s Yuzu.

“Oh hey there!” Serena says, waving. “Shreya, this is my girlfriend, Yuzu. Yuzu, this is Shreya.”

Shreya and Yuzu greet each other and Shreya lifts the cloth covering the henna to show Yuzu the design.

“Oh my gosh, Serena!” Yuzu gasps. “It’s beautiful!”

“Can you see the scars?” Serena asks.

“Only if I focus on them,” Yuzu says. “But honestly, anyone who doesn’t know that they’re there would never see them, the mehndi is too pretty.”

Shreya claps her hands. “Alright, let me mist this over so it gets moist, cover it up again, and I guess in an hour we’ll clean you up.”

Serena feels like time drags on. Shreya has other customers now, so Yuzu sits with Serena and entertains her with internet videos, but now Serena is just itching to get a look at her face. When the hour finally passes and Shreya comes back to gently sponge off the excess dye, Serena feels like her heart is going to pound out of her chest. She sits up and Shreya holds up a mirror.

“What do you think?”

Serena claps her hands over her mouth and her eyes fill with tears.

“You like it?” Shreya asks, smiling like she already knows.

Serena nods. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Your face says it all, honey,” Shreya says.

 

At Masumi’s party, Serena is surrounded by people she knows very well, and total strangers, but she has a boost of confidence. She’s wearing a new dress, black and held up by the thinnest of straps over her shoulders, and she’s wearing Yuzu’s bright red flats, and the side of her face is covered not by scars, but a blanket of stars and flowers that wind over and around her ear, across her jaw bone, and down her neck.

“Is that Shreya’s work?” Masumi asks Serena.

“How did you know?” Serena asks.

Masumi grins and shows Serena her palms, decorated with swirling patterns of dark red. “She did mehndi for me on all of my birthdays since I turned nine. She’s amazing, and her work is beautiful.”

“It really is,” Serena agrees. “I can almost feel it, you know? Even when I can’t see it, I can almost feel it there. It’s like magic.”

“It’s confidence,” Masumi says, taking Serena’s hands and squeezing them. “You feel beautiful, and it makes you feel amazing.”

It’s true, Serena thinks to herself. She does feel beautiful, and it is making her feel amazing.

Masumi releases Serena hands and gives her a gentle shove towards Yuzu. “I hear you two have been practicing dancing,” she says, “So go dance!”

Yuzu holds out her hand to Serena. “Shall we?”

Serena takes her hand. “Why yes, I believe so.”

When Serena dances with Yuzu, she knows people are watching, and she’s okay with that. Because she and Yuzu are beautiful, happy, and in love.

**Author's Note:**

> note-Mehndi and henna are not part of my culture. I hope I portrayed it in a respectful way.


End file.
